Not necessarily. I remember when I was young and before I took swimming lessons I fell into an 8 foot deep pool. My initial reaction wasn't stay calm and float, it was keep my damn head above the water. Luckily, my mom pulled me right out. Interestingly, Yahoo! had this article up the other day: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/drowning-looks-different-than-you-think-2010225/ This article adapted by permission from modernmom.com Think drowning involves screaming, gasping, and flailing? Think it’s easy to notice someone drowning? Well, you’re wrong. Drowning is a silent killer. There’s no waving or calling for help of any kind. It's not like what you see on TV. Many people would not even notice another person drowning at just 30 yards away. Read on for tips on how to keep yourself and those you love safe from this silent killer whether at the beach or in your backyard pool. The Facts About this Silent Killer The Instinctive Drowning Response, a term coined by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people instinctively do to avoid suffocation when drowning. The responses to drowning are undramatic and surprisingly quiet. Drownings are the leading cause of injury death for young children ages 1 to 4. Even scarier is that in a small but significant percentage of kids' drownings, an adult will have watched the whole process, not having a clue what was happening (Source:CDC). Drowning Doesn't Look Like What You'd Expect Dr. Pia, in an article entitled "It Doesn't Look Like They're Drowning" featured in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine (Fall 06), describes the typical drowning response as follows: "Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouth of a drowning person is not above the surface of the water long enough to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning person’s mouth is above the surface, she exhales and inhales quickly as her mouth starts to sink below the surface of the water. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs." Signs of Drowning Watch for these signs the next time you’re swimming with your kids or others: Head low in the water, mouth at water level Head tilted back with open mouth Hair over forehead or eyes Eyes glassy, empty and unable to focus Eyes closed Hyperventilating or gasping Not using legs Body is vertical and upright Trying to swim in a certain direction but not making progress Trying to roll over on the back Stay Aware to Save a Life Keep your eyes open for any oddities because even when things seem ok, they may not be. A good way to be sure is to ask your kid or the person you’re swimming with if he or she is all right. If they are rather still, do not answer or have a blank stare, then you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them! As any parent knows, kids make noise in the water. If they are not making noise, find out why and get them out of the water ASAP. Mario Vittone is an expert on water safety and a marine safety specialist with the U.S. Coast Guard. For more information on water safety issues, check out www.facebook.com/watersafety. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the Department of homeland Security or the U.S. Coast Guard.
I read an article about it very recently on Yahoo I believe. How generally drownings will go unnoticed because they just try to push up against the water and and if they get their mouths above water they only have time to take a breath. Edit: As I'm typing Pun posts the article. :grin:
Except that these folks were consciously playing in water despite the knowledge that they could not swim. Nobody consciously plays with bullets or bears...
And that makes it funny? So if my nephew fell from Pinnacle Mountain, which my family visits often, and several other people fell from that mountain trying to stop the others from falling they deserved to be laughed at because consciously they're enjoying time at a high elevation even though they know they can't fly?
Everyone laughing is an idiot and values life more than anything. You would kill hundreds to keep your life, you have no faith, and you will be taken care of.
Well, that is who I was talking to, the people posting that this is "hilarious" and "SNL" material and so on. It may be stupid, I can see both sides of the argument there.
I don't think what they did was stupid. If I had to label it something it would be brave or courageous. But those things are stupid...
Not to distract from the tragedy of the thread, but I couldn't help but notice this happened in Shreveport, LA. I'm not familiar with the geographics but isn't that near the Gulf of Mexico? I wouldn't be so surprised if I saw this in the Midwest but kids in California, Florida, Hawaii usually know how to swim. So maybe Louisiana too?
Just to point out that in this case the people drowning were calling for help. Tragically if the people drowning had gone down silently the others might not have tried to save them and died in the process.
Something can be both brave and stupid. The kids were trying to save lives. That's brave. They did so by jumping into water, knowing that they can't swim, and therefore had no hope of succeeding. That's stupid. Either way, this is a horrible tragedy and another good lesson on why everyone should learn how to swim.
A story like this should remind people that everyone should learn to swim and kids should learn to swim as soon as they can.
From what I read though they were playing in shallow water and happened upon a sinkhole. Granted the ground can shift etc, but that's like blaming a kid playing in his yard who falls into a sinkhole. Something like that might be enough to surprise and drown even someone who can swim.
